9.29.2012

It's a rainy day at our house. After a hectic two days with the husband gone away hunting and a bad night of no sleep and fussy babies after he left, all is right in my world again. Thank goodness for Grandmas who help with bath day and feedings when I can't think straight and could fall asleep standing up!

The quads are being good today, sweet little babies. The husband has them down for tummy time as I type and I'm about to go make one of my favorite recipes in the kitchen. The house is going to smell good in no time and it'll look nice soon after, as I plan to finally finish putting out a few fall decorations. Tomorrow we're looking forward to celebrating our six-year anniversary with dinner and a movie. Would never have believed I'd have four kiddos by this time. It's amazing how life can take you on such an unexpected journey!

In the meantime, Lolo Bear (Logan) is rocking some zebra-print leg warmers that I just couldn't resist sharing.

9.26.2012

Today has been overwhelming, to say the least. Sometimes the weight of all our responsibilities—four kids, finances, pets, home, vehicles, work and family—just gets to be more than I can bear. Then I have to take a breather, tell myself to just get through the rest of the day and find something positive to focus on. Like this morning, when my sweet Kailey girl spared several rare smiles to brighten my day. :) Hopefully it brightens yours, too.

9.23.2012

Recently, I braved into the land of the unknown, i.e. taking care of four little babies by myself. Seeing as I was flying solo, I courageously took on the bottle feedings with valor and successfully fed and burped my sweet screaming quadruplets in under half an hour.

We've come so far since the first few weeks after we brought the quads home. They each had to be hand-fed and it took 1.5 hours with two people to get everyone's bottles down. Then we had to suction their noses, do extra burpings, hold them for awhile, etc. due to aspiration and reflux. When you're feeding every three hours, you end up with only 30 minutes to an hour in between. But recently, we were able to transition to bottle props and it's made my life go from good to fantastic!

Wanna see how it went down? Fair warning: It was early morning and I look like death have no makeup on. Not a stitch. If that still didn't scare you away, then hit the play button, my friend, and be in awe. ;)

(And don't forget to scroll further down for a bonus video of Harrison rolling over for the first time!)

9.21.2012

1. A nice bottle of Chianti the husband and I were able to enjoy one evening...in between bottle feeding babies, of course.

2. I love fall magazines and read my way through most of the pages while holding not one but two babies. Be proud, be very proud.

3. With my mom and step-dad helping us so much throughout the week and our nanny coming in at night, I make sure to have a good supply of caffeine on hand for our Keurig machine. I, personally, drink the Tazo black tea or make the Donut Shop coconut mocha into iced coffee on mornings I'm dragging. Which is a lot.

4. My husband and my baby boy looking adorable during the Dallas Cowboys game last week.

5. I love roses—especially peach-colored ones. It's always nice to have pretty things around the house to look at. And this way, I can literally take the time to stop and smell the roses every day.

9.20.2012

*Disclaimer: If you are a fellow quad parent, use Dr. Brown bottles, are considering using Dr. Brown bottles or will soon have a baby, then this post is for you. If you're anyone else, then you may wanna come back tomorrow when I'm not doing such a baby-centric post. I'd hate for you to be bored. ;)

With quadruplets, come many bottles. And with many bottles come lots of things to wash. And with Dr. Brown bottles, come tons of teeny little parts. Which means more washing which takes more time which, as a mom to four newborns, I don't have. So my dishwasher and I had a talk. For any other quad moms or moms in general out there who hate to wash bottle parts as much as I do, here's my Dr. Brown bottle washin' how to.

We started out with about four different brand of bottles, but when you have four kids and two of them get reflux and the other two occasionally spit up just for fun—or because they just really didn't like what you were wearing that day—then you start looking for any kind of solution to help things. And for us, that solution was Dr. Brown bottles, despite the steep price tag (um, we needed 32 of them just to get through 24 hours!) and all the parts that come with them.

I assumed we'd have to hand wash everything, but after the first day or two I decided that was for the birds. I also didn't want to mess with loading piece after piece into a microwave steamer to disinfect them once a week, because that takes forever. So I decided to use my dishwasher and over the following weeks we've perfected our bottle routine. And I love it.

To start, we use plant-based soap in the dishwasher (we also use liquid soap at the sink, too, because I'm very cautious about introducing chemicals to the babies' in any way). Seventh Generation, Scotch Brite and Clorox Green all have fantastic dishwashing soaps that are chemical-free and baby-safe. We use Seventh Generation dishwashing tablets and just toss one in with every load, baby bottles and our regular dishes. I've been using it for a couple years now and it works great. If I can't find tablets, then we'll occasionally use the dishwashing gel liquid. I know that BabyGanics also makes soap and cleaning products and I've seen them for sale at Babies R Us, Amazon and BuyBuyBaby.

Anyway, we do our bottles in the evenings. My husband usually handles this process and he starts by making all 32 bottles for the next 24 hours. At the end of each feeding throughout the night and following day we give the bottles a quick rinse then stick them in the left side of the sink that we've filled with warm soapy water. This keeps the bottles from getting sticky and gunky until we put them in the dishwasher.

The next evening, we run a load of ALL 32 bottles. I typically put it on the short cycle and the hot temps and steam in the dishwasher disinfects everything, saving me the trouble of having to microwave steam stuff.

We have a variety of dishwasher baskets that I accumulated and load them with all the Dr. Brown bottle parts. One basket for the nipples, one for the collars, the vent inserts and vent reservoirs. The caps get thrown in the top rack. We also have a basket for pacifiers, too. Then the bottles get put in the bottom rack.

After the dishwasher is done, we pull everything out and lay it all to dry on a just-cleaned counter atop clean towels. (Ignore the non-Dr. Brown bottles in the photo, this was taken prior to our bottle conversion!) We put initials on the bottle collars so we know who's is who, since occasionally the babies' are on different amounts. This mostly helps us at the end of a feeding when we need to record each bottle on each baby's chart. Now we have blue Dr. Brown bottles for Harrison and pink ones for Kailey and we have Logan and Trystan's initials on the collars of the other bottles.

Once dry, all the bottles are filled and assembled.

Then we line 'em up on a designated fridge in the shelf, one row of bottles for each baby. When it's time to eat, we pull our fancy schmancy bottle warmer....aka a tupperware! We got this from the NICU, since they used the same warming method. We put the four bottles in then fill it with super hot water. After the first baby has been changed, we go back and dump the water and fill it again. By the time a second baby has been changed, the bottles are usually ready. (The liquid feels "neutral" when tested on the top of our hand, not cool and not hot.)

Once ready, we grab our handy bottle prop buddies, insert the bottles and get to work feeding those babies!

If you want to be reallllly organized, Dr. Brown makes dishwashing baskets and drying racks that'll match up with your bottles and parts. We're pretty happy with our method, it takes about 15 minutes to get the dishwasher loaded then about 20-30 minutes to fill the 32 bottles and put them together. But that's all we do once a day, so it's totally worth it to us. And I like that it's usually the husband's job. He's good at it. ;)

9.19.2012

Having four babies in the NICU for two months really leaves you with a lot of memories. And lately, as several of my new quad mom friends around the country welcome home their own four babies after completing their own NICU journeys, I've found myself flashing back to our days in the hospital. I can easily recall the all-too-familiar routine we followed day after day while watching our teeny babies, born at just 7.5 months, grow strong.

Our hospital stay started when I was nearly 23 weeks pregnant. My doctor admitted me as a precaution because he wanted so badly for me to make it as long as possible and wanted to be prepared for any setbacks. This turned out to be the best call he made because shortly after I was admitted I began having strong contractions every few minutes. Fortunately they were able to stop them and that's when I began my 7.5 week stint on a magnesium sulfate IV, as well as other medications like Indocin and Procardia and a constant IV of fluids, to help keep contractions at bay. The magnesium relaxes the smooth muscles in your body, like the uterus, and was effective for me as far as helping me have as few contractions as possible when you are only 20-something weeks pregnant with four babies but your body thinks it's past due for delivery. But it also causes unpleasant side effects that I seemed to get full-on, like body aches, sweats, headaches, blurred vision and such. It was not fun to say the least. But as I lay there in my hospital bed for two months, trying to hold off on delivery as long as I could, I knew I'd do anything to provide for my unborn babies.

And then they arrived. Our precious quadruplets were born on May 31, 2012 at 29 weeks and five days and weighed from 2lbs 6oz to 3lbs 6oz. My heart couldn't have been fuller that day and I could not have been more in awe at God's infinite grace and mercy and His many blessings on our family. Not to mention, I'd been so touched by all the warm comments from you lovely readers!

All the babies during their first week of life. They received various treatments like light therapy for jaundice, cpap machines (seen on their face) for breathing and monitors for vital signs. Harrison also had to be put on the ventilator and had a chest tube inserted for air pockets outside his lungs quite early after birth.

I stayed in the hospital for a few more days and then finally went home. It was a hard transition for me because I'd become so accustomed to my environment there and the nurses' care. Even though I wanted more than anything to get out of the hospital, it was hard to go home and take care of myself again. It was also hard to leave the babies behind, though I certainly knew they were in the best place possible. And so began the second part of our extended hospital stay, the NICU. We knew that our babies would likely be there two months and probably more. Their original due date (for a normal nine month pregnancy) was August 11, 2012 and the general rule is that premature babies will be kept until they are considered full-term and then longer as necessary.

We quickly fell into an exhaustive pattern that involved making the 45-minute commute each way to the hospital on a daily basis. The husband dropped me at the front door then went to park while I was given a wheel chair. Then he'd walk all the way to the drop-off and meet me to wheel me up to the NICU. I'd leave any breast milk I'd pumped at the front desk then we'd head back to see the babies. It was only a few days before they were all put in the same pod, which made our lives much easier so we could see them all in the same room and not have to run back and forth. Or decide which kiddo to see first!

The babies at about two weeks old.

Then after several weeks they began to make their way out of their isolettes and into their cribs. By this point, we had our routine down and I was able to drive and wasn't relying on friends to take me or the husband on the days he wasn't working. I would head down late in the morning and head straight to the pod or straight to the pumping room to pump before heading in. Once I was with the babies, I was pretty distracted and didn't do much else! I would drop my stuff in between their cribs then go around and say hello and kiss each kiddo and get an update from their nurse.

Four cribs! Photo taken around four to five weeks, after all the babies had moved out of their temperature-controlled isolettes.

Then I'd spend the rest of the day changing diapers, feeding babies and holding them in between feedings as much as I could. It was really challenging to balance giving four different babies attention—I had to make peace with the fact that some days I could hold only one or that two might get a little more attention than the others—keeping up with my pumping schedule, feeding them all every three hours (it was challenging as they were still so little), remembering to leave the pod for breaks to eat and drink, running the babies' laundry in the machines down the hall and occasionally get a little rest. Then the husband would arrive after work, battling traffic all the way down there to spend an hour or two with the babies. We usually tried to wrap up our visits before the night shift change at 7pm, but sometimes we just hadn't gotten enough lovin' and would come back after the nurses switched out. On those occasions, it was easily 9pm or later before we left because the night shift did bath times and outfit changes! You know this momma loved that!

The husband putting away a batch of clean laundry in one of the quad's closets. We always had clothes to clean with four babies!

We were very grateful to get to know many of the wonderful nurses that worked in our NICU, and we asked many of them to be the babies' primary care nurses. This gave us a great peace of mind during the parts of the day and night we weren't there. We were able to call whenever we wanted to check on them and it was always nice to get a friendly update from familiar faces.

While the husband and I loved spending time with the babies, the NICU was really exhausting. Just the environment and all the constantly beeping monitors can cause anxiety, it's not the most relaxing of places. And there's always other babies coming and going—some much, much tinier than ours or very sick and some just stopping by for a brief stay before going home. There was a baby that was in our pod the entire time we were there that was very sick. She was eventually released on hospice to go home with her parents before passing away. Seeing those types of situations, and others suffering for so long, kept us on our toes and made us so appreciative and feel so blessed to have our four healthy babies. The tough week we spent with Harrison made it even more real as to how quickly things can take a turn for the worse and his recovery made us realize how much the situation is out of our control and how we must rely on God's strength and grace to carry us through. I prayed often as I held my babies in the NICU and prayed for those around us as well.

For the long days or overnight stays, we often visited the Ronald McDonald House—a great place for NICU parents to get a reprieve from the hospital. There was a full kitchen for meal prep and storage and they occasionally provided dinners as well. And they had rooms based on patient needs that you could sign up for to stay the night in. We did this several times so we could spend extra time with Harrison when he was sick and also on the occasional weekend to avoid commuting back and forth several times—and because checking in on four babies can took up a good chunk of your day!

The Ronald McDonald house, with overnight rooms for NICU parents.

While it was nice to have a place to stay, we saw many parents in misery with dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep and on the brink of emotional collapse. We heard stories of babies with the dreaded necrotizing enterocolitis, otherwise known as "nec," which meant the babies bowels were incredibly incapable of functioning correctly. There is no known cause of this but it is often seen in premature infants and is not usually diagnosed until a few weeks or even months after birth. It is very deadly and many times the infected part of the intestines must be removed over and over, leaving very little left and requiring frequent operations on the baby's tiny body. One couple was waiting on their last hope, an intestinal transplant, and it wasn't looking very promising. Our hearts ached for these couples—new to parenthood just like we were and in complete agony that they couldn't do more to save their child. On nights that dinner was provided in the Ronald McDonald house, it was generally a quiet crowd that gathered to eat. Everyone there, including us, was exhausted from splitting our lives between home and the NICU, between trying to carry on with the outside world but remain a constant fixture at the bedside of our children. It certainly puts your life in perspective and makes you so grateful for the things you do have.

Now we sit at home with our amazing miracle babies and look back on our NICU days with relief, mostly. Relief that we survived, that Harrison recovered and that our experience there turned out to be a positive one. We also have a large amount of gratitude, both for God's miraculous hand on each of our preemie kiddos and for the incredible doctors and nurses who ministered to them. While some days our "new normal" is completely and utterly exhausting, we know every day is a blessing. God saw fit to give us four babies because He knew, deep down, we could handle it! So we try to remember that on the days that we feel like we just can't handle anymore!

Most of the time we like to think we're fairly organized and have a solid white-knuckled grip on everything, but there are many moments of chaos, emotional breakdowns and thoughts about how long we can keep this up. Four kids is hard work! I've no idea how my husband and I both manage to work, how I'm able to cook on occasion, the amount of laundry our washer has done, where we find the time for a glass of wine, how we keep track of 32 bottles a day or how I even remember my name at the end of the day. And yet I'm amazed at how much I can miss those crazy babies from the time I put them to bed, sleep fitfully for an hour or two and then have to get up because someone is crying. I look at that little face and think to myself (at 3am), "Wow, you're lucky you're so cute!"

Well, I finally finished this post after typing on and off for three days and I just had to break for a feed then sat down to bang out these last few thoughts and now it's time for baths. Always always something. And boy are they cute. Like I said, it's a good thing... ;)

9.15.2012

Recently, I was offered the opportunity to review and post about the Universal Baby Bottle & Sippy Cup Organizer by PRK Products, Inc. They sent me the goods and, as soon as I had both hands free for a spare minute, I put it to the challenge!

(Please note I was in no way otherwise compensated for my thoughts and opinions as expressed in this post, as they are all my own.)

The great thing is that this baby comes ready to roll and requires no assembly whatsoever. And being universal means it's compatible with more than 30 brands of bottles and sippy cups and can store up to 12 of either one. The gravity-dispensing opening at the bottom makes grabbing your bottles easy and it keeps things much more organized rather than tossing pre-made bottles into your fridge.

And the easy-to-adjust width is simple, just push down on the white "button" and pull the bin apart to your desired width. I did notice that it doesn't go any wider than a four-ounce bottle with the lid on, so if you're using eight-ounce bottles it won't expand wide enough for those. But sippy cups will fit nicely in the space!

The organizer is great for tossing in bottle lids, nipples and other supplies that often clutter up your countertop or drawer.

Both items are dishwasher-safe and can also be stored in the freezer. Each set retails for $24.95 and can be purchased at PRKproductsinc.com.

9.11.2012

Today was a big triumph, for several reasons. First, I got some sleep. Like real-several-hours-in-a-row sleep. Second, the husband and I got recharged and were able to spend a little time together. Third, we came up with a bigger, better daily schedule for quadruplet life. And fourth, I woke up in a good mood. Which brings me back to "first," which leads me to explain all this to you from the beginning.

Trystan and Harrison hanging out. The littlest and the biggest!

Bringing our babies home from the NICU resulted in a euphoric high and a near-paralyzing state of fear at the same time. We'd spent such a long time at the hospital, watching them grow strong and big from the wee two and three-pounders that they were at birth—on top of being born 10 weeks early. As I've talked about before, there was the day less than two weeks in that we nearly lost Harrison. In fact, I wasn't even able to hold him until his 15th day of life. And there were endless times I jolted awake at night because I wanted to call the NICU again to be sure everyone was okay when I wasn't there. Not to mention the various nights we actually slept at the hospital. We'd worked so hard from the day we had found out I was pregnant with quadruplets to simply survive. It was all about surviving the pregnancy, then surviving the delivery then surviving the NICU. Each is incredibly difficult for its own reasons and each one tests your mind, your strength, your emotions, your spiritual faith so much more than you could ever imagine. As the one going through it all first-hand, I found myself reaching into depths I didn't even know I had to pull on strength and willpower I thought was all but lost. The day I got to meet my four beautiful, perfect babies I felt so elated. We'd done it. But it wasn't over. They still had to survive those first few weeks. And then, at long last, it was time to bring them home.

After such a long road to reach that point, we wanted to do things perfectly. Like any new parent, you freak out over everything and wonder if you're doing it all right. So with four premature little babies sitting in a pack-and-play in our living room, my husband and I exchanged more than a few looks wondering how we'd make it work. But we never spent too much time wondering if. With four babies in your charge, there isn't actually time to wonder if. You only have a few seconds in the day to wonder how. And then you just do. Which makes my recipe for surviving quads no if, a little how and a lot of do.

Harrison, at just over three months, lifting himself up on his arms. Daddy is proud!

It's safe to say that quad parents—and, of course, parents of multiples—get used to doing things the hard way. The pregnancies aren't easy and neither is managing several babies or kids at the exact same age. Having several kids the, er, traditional way (one at a time!) is challenging enough. Multiplying them and having them in groups is insane. And somehow God saw fit to entrust us with just that. Four little babies to challenge our lives, fill our hearts and turn our home into a mini-Babies R Us.

So when we got the last baby home, we checked our pride at the door and called on our moms to help. Okay, we didn't have to actually call...they were both ready and willing! For the first few weeks they alternated coming and staying with us, sometimes up to two weeks at a time. They worked tirelessly alongside us, in the ranks so to speak! We were all up long hours and slept little, the babies ate every three hours around the clock day and night. They took a lot of work to feed and burp when we got home because they were still trying to improve with the bottle. Eventually, though, it seemed like things were taking even longer. As they got up to three ounces per bottle, it felt like an eternity to get all four changed, fed and burped—even with two people.

I felt so captive, so helpless by the whole situation. There was no way I could make it a day on my own caring for four babies, how would I even feed them by myself? It would take hours and then it'd be time to start all over! My free time during the day was becoming less and less, almost no more than 30 minutes in between feeds by the time it was all done. The husband and I are both very independent people and being so reliant on others had been a hard lesson for us to learn. Granted, we were very grateful and extremely blessed to have help! But having people in your home 24/7 and feeling like you can't really do it on your own can be frustrating. We both look forward to the occasional weekend when it is just the two of us taking care of the babies and enjoying some time together in between. However, by the time Sunday rolls around we are exhausted and watching the door for our next arrival of relief.

Sweet Trystan striking a pose.

Harrison getting a bath :)

There were a couple things we knew we could do to help ourselves out. First, we weren't afraid to call on a few close friends to come over now and then. Currently, we limit the amount of foot traffic that comes in and out of the house to keep germs at a minimium. And anyone that does come to visit the babies has to have a DTap vaccine (Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis or Whooping Cough) and flu shot. This ensures that the babies, who are still strengthening and developing their immune systems, will stay healthy. We aren't trying to avoid getting them sick altogether but we are trying to delay it as long as possible! A simple cold could land us back in the NICU.

There's always two people at our house taking care of babies. Me and the husband or me and the mom or my mom and step-dad or my husband and his mom and so on. It really does take two people to handle the load, or at least for us it does. Fortunately our moms are able to spend a great deal of time with us, but the nights were still incredibly exhausting. So we splurged for a night nanny three nights a week and it's been amazing. I found her on Care.com and we love her! Granted, it's a strain on the ol' budget and thankfully we've received a little help with it, but it's one of those do-or-die situations for us.

But quads are still quads and we were still tired. Then two days ago, I ran out of gas. So on Saturday, my mom and step-dad came to our rescue. I had shed a few tears that day for the first time in a long time, and I knew something had to change. Funnily enough, my husband and I traded places with them and went to the RV resort they're staying at just down the road and my mom and step-dad came to our house and took over quad duty! While they fed and cuddled with their grandkids, we jumped into the hot tub with some beers and talked babies. Total happy hour conversation material, lemme tell ya! But it was so needed. In all the chaos, it hadn't occurred to us that as the babies grow and mature our plans should too. It was a revelation as we sat in the bubbles and worked out a new weekly schedule that would hopefully enable us to do more.

I woke up to four happy babies thanks to Grandma & Grandpa!

We decided that bath time would be on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and would get done during the day by my mom and I, versus putting it off until the evenings when we were most tired. This also gave my husband a break when he comes home from work. Then Tuesdays and Thursdays my mom and step-dad watch the babies for a few hours while I go to my local Starbucks and work. I still have to do the occasional work on other days, but getting to have several hours in a row will help me knock out most of my projects more efficiently.

We also decided that each baby gets 20 minutes to feed then they are done. We had learned this in the NICU before they were discharged so why shouldn't we apply it now? We'd worried so much about how much they did or didn't eat and if they'd burped or not that feeds were taking as much as 45 minutes per baby and was just getting worse. Feedings during the day are done every three hours and we decided to rigidly stick to that schedule to keep us on track. That meant changing diapers and warming bottles 10 minutes before feed time. This helps us get the most out of our "down time" in between. Then my mom suggested we try bottle propping again, which we do in the pack-and-plays with two babies to a person and constant supervision while they eat. It basically gives us an extra hand so that all four babies get fed at once! Lo and behold, feed times have been cut to a third of the original time it took. We now have all four babies changed, fed and burped in 45 minutes or less. Today, we got it done in 30 minutes! The 5pm feed was over at 5:30pm and when my husband arrived at 5:45 he thought we simply hadn't started yet. He was floored when I told him they were finished! And surprisingly enough, they still eat just as much if not more then they did before. I don't know if it's because they are less distracted in their boppies or what, but it's working and I'm loving it. I feel like I have a small piece of my life back!

We also chose to have a set bedtime for the babies at 10pm every night, which means the last feed of the day needs to be at 9pm. Then we let them sleep as long as they will at night in between feeds. This helps set a good trend for the future and helps us get to sleep as well. Our three hour daytime feeding schedule is dictated by the time the babies wake for their first morning feed. Say they get up at 7am, so we are feeding at 10, 1, 4 and 7. Instead of waiting to feed again at 10pm, we do a "cluster feed" and give them bottles again at 9pm before putting them to bed. And if the feeds are at 2, 5 and 8, then we do the 5pm feed and cluster feed at 7 and 9. And sometimes our schedule ends up being 3, 6 and 9pm, which works out perfectly.

Bottle propping babies!

The new bath and work schedule also helps, because I don't have to stress out about my deadlines as much knowing I'll have two dedicated days to get them done during the week. And on Sunday and Tuesday nights, when we don't have the night nanny (she comes Monday, Wednesday and Thursday), my mom and step-dad stay the night and take over the feeds so we can get extra sleep. It was a great thing for us to realize that we can take charge of this situation and adapt it to work to our needs. And we didn't have to sacrifice every waking minute, we just had to figure out a new way to get things done.

So the new plan started yesterday and so far it's been working like a dream. I'll be sure to update on here how it's going and if we've hit success or not. But speaking of dreams, I better get to 'em. Bed is calling my name. More from quadville later this week!

9.05.2012

Just wanted to share an awesome picture I snapped this evening, as we relish the sounds of opening season football in our house and root for our hometown team, the Dallas Cowboys! That's the husband, his brother and little man Harrison cheering 'em on...

Hi there.

My name's Amber. And yes, I really have quadruplets. They're toddlers now! I'm a devoted wife, dedicated quad mom, freelance writer and a constant cook. This blog first began when the husband and I moved to Scotland for a year, and I've been blogging ever since. Now Texas Tales chronicles our busy life as a family of six. Thanks for stopping by!